University of Reading win CFA Institute Research Challenge 2018 UK final

Tuesday 20 March 2018

CFA UK announced today that the team from ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading has won the UK local competition of the CFA Institute Research Challenge and now advances to next stage of the competition.

The ICMA Centre team is made up of (from left to right)

Stephan Caps

Andres Felipe Acevedo Vega

Richa Patil

Peter Finden

Bogdan Andrei Mihala

They were mentored by Akshay Shah, CFA

The following universities competed with the ICMA Centre, Henley Business School, University of Reading at the UK final.

Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University

Centre for Finance and Investment, Exeter University

Lancaster University Management School (LUMS), Lancaster University

Each university sent a team of three to five students to participate in the UK final. The students from the winning team will travel to Dublin for the EMEA regional final where they will match their wits, analytical skills and presentation abilities against student teams from across the region. Following the three regional competitions, the global final will take place on 27 April 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The students presented their analysis and buy/sell/hold recommendations on WPP plc – an LSE listed, FTSE 100, multinational advertising and public relations company - to a panel of expert judges. The judging panel was made up of:

Ade Roberts, CFA

James Doman, CFA

Greg Collett, CFA

Orlaith O'Connor, CFA

Their presentation at the UK final was the culmination of months of research; interviews with company management, competitors, and clients; and presentation training. The event was hosted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.